American tourists already have the stereotype of believing the United States to be superior to everywhere else. My husband and I got the opportunity to see this on full display in Summer 2023 when were exploring the beautiful town of Tallinn, Estonia. For those of you unfamiliar with the country, it’s one of the old Soviet republics (but don’t bring that up to locals!) that’s been part of the European Union and in NATO since 2004. That means, like 20 other EU members, they use euros as the national currency.
We were admiring the beautiful Russian orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. When we went inside, a few elderly ladies affiliated with the church were selling candles, rosaries, and other religious ceremonial articles. An older American couple approached one of the ladies with a beautiful miniature triptych they’d picked out. The lady says “twelve” which was obviously the only English she knew. (Many of the residents of Tallinn speak amazing English but it tends to be more prevalent with younger people.) Without hesitation, the gentleman hands the woman a twenty dollar bill – US. The woman shakes her head profusely as he offers it to her. I don’t think he understood why she wouldn’t take his money but fortunately a person behind him in line yells, “It’s euros here.” The couple put their item back and stormed out of the church empty handed, muttering under their breath about how they should take their US dollars. I guess they didn’t realize that the euro was worth more than the US dollar at the time either.
Don’t be THAT tourist…